ASK HN: What Coding Language Should I Learn?

Depends on) 1) Who you ask, their opinions etc (and there are many) 2) What you want to do. Coding is too big of a field to say "you should learn this language." Javascript is ubiquitous and you can do most anything with it (especially work with browsers) but it's also not the loveliest language.

You mention web design so then CSS, Javascript and HTML would be the logical choices.

If you want to learn to code, though, then I would personally suggest learning a functional language - maybe Clojure or Scala? That's a highly opinionated recommendation because my own experience has shown me that learning functional programming makes you more capable with other more imperative languages. This might be of interest. http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/OtherDocs/To%20the%20Budg...

Most people would likely recommend something like python or ruby or even Java. There are many opinions. I would look at what you want to do first, and then choose the technologies that are used in that problem domain.

Coursera has courses that you can take for free. It would be a good place to start.

Start with HTML & CSS then move on to JavaScript. https://ilovecoding.org/

JavaScript is the hottest language on the planet at the moment and it's getting bigger and bigger.

Initially you'll want to learn

HTML->CSS->javascript

Track down a copy of Head First HTML & CSS to get started.

I recommend installing MAMP or WAMP for a local web host and using sublime text as your editor.

Starting from scratch, use the book Head First HTML and CSS (you can probably get through your library or a digital version)

Once you have a few local websites setup, get a hosting account (hostgator is ok for learning) FTP up your site using filezilla, buy a domain, learn to point it to your hosting.

Next get the book head first PHP & MySQL.

You'll learn PHP and MySQL building on top of what you've learned in the first book.

After you have completed that book. Pick a project to create for your self. A todo list maybe. Code it from scratch using what you've learned.

Next I would look at jQuery and learn how to improve the front end of your todo list.

Next step up would be learning a framework if you want to continue learning backend coding.

I recommend Laravel(PHP) or Rails(Ruby).

I'd recommend developing on a mac for both. Windows tends to have issues doing even the basic tutorials where you'll spend half a day troubleshooting only to find out it's a windows problem that needs a work around.

There are lots of tutorials for both.

Railscasts.com and Laracasts.com are good places to start.

You don't need to dive in to these till you have a solid foundation of HTML->CSS->javascript->jQuery->PHP->MySQL.

There is lots of learn so move at your own pace, see what you like.

Photoshop is a nice skill for editing creating images for your sites.

TeamTreehouse.com is a good paid site for learning.

Good luck, have fun.

lisp or Haskell, which one expands the mind more. I mostly only have time to learn one

I like to think a good programming book will teach you theory along with showing you what an implementation in a language is going to look like.

While you still find it's hard to decide which language is superior to learn, maybe do some comparisons? You could look at some samples of different languages very easily, e.g. get on github and browse around! Then perhaps you gravitate naturally towards how one looks?

It could be nice, just starting out and all, to enjoy the natural elegance of languages: consider solving some project euler problems...then you can look at solutions in all sorts of languages! What fun.